Success Stories

The team at The iGaming Collective have demonstrated their expertise and experience in many ways and in many different areas within the category over the years. Here are just a few examples of our work:

Brand strategy

Acknowledging that only 5% of the global iGaming revenues came from poker and that the vertical was on a flat growth trajectory, the World's leading online Poker brand approved a strategy of extending the brand fully into two other key verticals, Casino and Sportsbetting, whilst at the same time, changing the lens through which people viewed poker through.

At the heart of this strategy was the creation of an aspirational, attitudinal and contemporary Masterbrand, an entertainment vehicle that promised multi-level thrills for anyone entering its community. The brand was created as an holistic company-wide proposition, designed to change culture, product and customer experience.

Today, it is the guiding light that ensures the business remains the preeminent poker brand across the globe, as well as a leader in Casino and Sports. The foundations have been set for ongoing innovation in content, media and product development.

Performance marketing

A complete overhaul of a leading global brand's Performance Marketing business unit in 2019 set 2020 up to be a stellar year for the brand as over 2M first-time-depositors were acquired representing a ~90% YoY increase.

The team benefitted from having clear lines of accountability, an upgraded adtech stack that included primary ad-serving and the deployment of a CDP, enhanced media measurement capabilities and DCO as well as automated marketing reporting powered by a new single dataset that joined 1P customer level data with marketing campaign data. 2021 was also the year of the first effective MMM output.

Emerging market strategy

Working with an established retail operation in Uganda, it was clear a new focus on growing the digital business would be required if it were to maintain its position in market. Having recognised the need to shift focus entirely to the emerging online channel, a new go-to-market strategy was developed for the digital business.

Research informed us that within the market there were a number of online competitors growing well; however it was also clear that their offering was weak and with a better proposition, we could take market share.

An holistic plan was developed to deliver the product the customer wanted, payment options they needed and customer servicing they expected. With the confidence in the new proposition, it was taken to market through local Ugandan radio, OOH, social, influencers and local sponsorships.

New records in Actives and Turnover quickly followed, a lesson in understanding the market and having a clear 360° strategy.

Local operations set-up

Recognising the enormous potential that existed for the iGaming sector in Africa, we developed a hugely ambitious but achievable plan to become the #1 online operator on the continent.

With a footprint established in multiple markets the baseline was set. However, in order to compete for podium position in each market it was clear we needed to go beyond a purely centralised operating strategy for online. Local focus would be the key to winning at market level.

As such, a local operations structure was designed. Under an Online Country Manager, each market would establish dedicated local resources for customer services (incl. VIP), community management, media & partnerships, offline affiliates and payments.

Establishing dedicated online teams to ensure that central strategy, around product, technology, performance marketing and brand was shaped and executed effectively at market level became the key to success. 

Brand partnerships

Formula 1: When Italy introduced a ban on all gaming advertising in 2019 it created a real challenge for one leading iGaming operator.

Whilst those operators with retail footprints would always have shops to act as ‘billboards’, online brands were not afforded that luxury. In addition, it was clear that many other European markets were likely to follow and so, following a strategic review and market option overview, we struck a deal for the brand to become F1’s first ever European gaming partner.

The lateral-thinking deal allowed the brand to be broadcast into all European markets through high impact trackside media, irrespective of whether or not an advertising ban was in place in a particular market.

UFC: Poker was struggling for growth in 2018, and one brand, as the global category leader, needed to identify new audiences in which to present its proposition to.

Multiple options were assessed before the UFC, as one the fastest growing sports globally and a huge crossover fan base in key markets including Brazil, Russia, France and the US, was chosen as an ideal brand partnership to drive renewed growth.

A deal was agreed for the brand to become the UFC’s exclusive global partner for online poker and gaming and following a high impact launch event in Rio de Janeiro at UFC 237, the partnership drove awareness of the brand and engagement with its products amongst the UFC fan base through broadcast media, ambassador activations, digital content and co-branded games. 

Product & martech strategy

The MarTech function at one Tier 1 operator was made up of a number of platforms & products managed by different teams across the business. The result was a disjointed customer experience and inefficient ways of working.

In 2019 we set to work on creating a customer-driven Product Strategy for MarTech; creating the vision & objectives, defining the customer outcomes & key results, and setting up the Product teams focused around outcome-led initiatives across multiple brands within the global stable.

This led to a complete transformation in performance, and ultimately to the award-winning customer experiences on show today.

Service provider procurement

With backgrounds in both service provider and end user organisations, The iGaming Collective has extensive experience of what excellence looks like in service partner recruitment, onboarding and ongoing management.

Across global Advertising and Creative, Media and Brand Strategy, its Partners have run many a thorough and competitive procurement process with the result being the recruitment of high quality agencies that help to drive business growth.

As well as quality recruitment, we help negotiate contracts and in one case secured a $10m annual saving.

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